Blog 4

In the first reading "Ecosystems and Human Well-being", it talks of how the human race has had impacts on the environment in everything that they do, and now that we are looking to the future things are looking not so good. There was a report (the Millennium Development Goals) The report went out to point out four possible scenarios that the earth and its inhabitants could take to help reduce/deplete the many crises that affect the current day populations. The report showed that each of the possible scenarios (the most likely of the bunch) they were all tied to one common element. And that element was the fact that there needed to be a sustainable development plan that really took hold of the current environmental situations and tried to remedy them. At the end of the reading it asks: "Why is it so difficult to manage ecosystems sustainably " I believe that it is hard to manage an ecosystem sustainably because there are (first off) many factors that we may not be aware of when we are trying to gain control to managing an ecosystem. Also there is the fact that the many ecosystems of the world generally have a cycle, something takes from the system, but also gives back. Us humans are used to living in a linear fashion, we take then instead of giving back we throw our wastes at the system (and in some cases animals just throw their waste as well, but their waste is much more well suited for the system than ours) This is the two biggest concerns that I have when i think of humans working to manage an ecosystem!

In the second reading "Living downstream; An ecologist looks at cancer and the environment", it talks of the authors life and how she was adopted and all the people that were in her adopted family, as well as her got one or another kind of cancer. This led her to the thinking that it must not only be the fact that people are related and the cancer is 'passed down' but there must be other environmental reasons or variables that helped mutate the cells. The reading speaks of how there are many bi-laws and regulations in place that reduce or eliminate certain carcinogens in the environment, but they still persist int the human tissues and environment that people are in contact with every day. At the end of the reading it asks: "Why is it hard to tell whether - and how much - a chemical is carcinogenic in humans?" I think that it is hard to tell how much of an effect a cancerous material will have on a human because we are all different, no matter how similar we are, there are always factors that make us much different than one another. This is what i believe makes it hard to figure out these things for humans, what are the safe levels for a human, what can be considered an average human? Might we need to create different "Averages" for different parts of the world, or for those that live in much different ways and places than others?

In the third reading "Our Stolen Future", they speak of how there are certain tests and procedures that must be completed before a chemical or drug can be put on the market and how the current method of testing these things, is to take a sample of the chemical, and administer a dosage to a test subject. This method was for the longest time thought to be an incorrect method in that the results were too high or bloated if you will. While in reality (and after a lot more experiments  it was discovered that the high and short term dosage was much less dangerous than the small doses over a long period of time. The reading went on to spell out that the human race will be doomed to fail (most likely to infertility due to the endocrine distributors)  in the near future if this kind of ignorance is to continue. At the end of the reading it asks:  "Is cancer the only health effect of environmental contaminants that should concern us?" I think that cancer is one of those things that genuinely concerns people because it has such an air of unknown surrounding it. For the longest time I personally believed that everything could give you cancer, and there was nothing you could do about it. When you had cancer you were doomed to die. And the worst part of it all was that I thought that it was completely random, I think that if we are going to get concerned we should use this fear of cancer as a tool to promote awareness. (Much like a keystone species is used to help generate awareness of an environmental concern)

In the fourth reading "Environmental Justice for All", it talks about how there are certain communities in the US that are not given fair judgement on issues relating to the placement or disposal of dangerous and harmful chemicals. There are several places where the communities have fought with the cooperation and have lobbied governments to create laws and bilaws that make the communities that are more poor, or ethnically different, safer from the kinds of decisions that would introduce harmful elements into the surrounding environment. At the end of the reading it poses a question: "How do people with money keep the polluting industries out of their neighborhoods " I think that people with more money have that money for a reason. They have connections in the world that help keep the bigger cooperations out of their front lawns. Also there is the fact that this is an American example, and when there is something that is not supported by those with the moneys, there is sure to be a lawsuit or two costing absurd amounts of money coming up the walkway.

In the fifth reading "Impacts of Biodiversity, Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services" it talks of how we have been destroying the marine ecosystems that are close to human activities. We have been polluting the waters, over fishing and creating a host of other problems for the inhabitants of the marine systems. It also speaks of how the ecosystems that have more biodiversity are more likely to bounce back from any sort of an event due to the fact that they are harder to remove. Sounds quite negative when put that way but it is true, not every species acts the same when a similar stimulant is introduced and therefore that difference in action will cause an ecosystem to have more stable parts. Thus allowing for an easier rebound when and if at all possible. At the end of the reading it asks "Why are commercial fisheries in decline?" I think that commercial fisheries are in decline because, well first off many of the worlds most abundant fishing areas are being depleted due to over fishing, and therefore if there is less fish in the sea, then there is less fish caught and sold. This means that people that have been sustaining themselves for decades are doing better as they do not have the huge overhead costs that the commercial fisheries have. They are able to better mange their resources and money.

For the activity I watched the Ted talk "William McDonough on cradle to cradle design" It was about how we as humans can create places and things that no longer work in linear ways, products and places that circulate materials and parts. This sort of designing would create a world that is more sustainable in that the centers are created to work with the idea that if at all possible reuse, then recycle and never throw away. (or at least if you are going to throw away something, 'throw' it away in a way that something else can use or benefit from it) This idea of creating and using things in a more cyclic way is one of those things that makes me stop and say "Why in the name of heaven and hell are we not doing this now?!?" The sheer idea that we are creating things that have only one use, and then get thrown away, and not thrown away in a good way either, just thrown away so that it can sit there and hopefully degrade to a point where no one will see it again. This kind of a society can not be supported and must be stopped, this is why I feel a great need to shout out about this cyclic design over the linear design!!

In this class I have matured a great bit, in that when I first came to this class I had little to no of an idea to the extent of the damages that us humans were causing for the earth. This class has taught me that even though we humans have been screwing up the world for quite a while now, and the future is looking bleak, there are always answers  solutions or ideas that can remedy these problems. This class has taught me not only about the environment and how to treat it, but also how to raise my voice and let others hear my concerns about our actions. In class we were given a blog reflection and it asked "As this course on environmental issues concludes, what do you feel are the most pressing environmental issues facing the world today?" I feel that this answer is not so much the biggest and baddest issue that surrounds us today, but the fact that there is one issue (at least i feel) that if corrected, i think will cause the rest of the issues that we face to become more transparent in ways that it can be solved. Our western society is a buy, buy, shop and spend society. When we are not happy we feed the giant beast that can be called consumerism, to some the beast is an animal of great beauty and majesticness but to others, all we see is the tracks that it leaves in the environment and the giant piles of waste that accumulate around its bottom. This is what i feel the most pressing issue that faces us today is, if we can correct this type of thinking, to only buy what we need, and to buy things that we can use more than once. This will create a society that is ready to tackle the great environmental issues, this will mold a society into thinking about where things come from, where they go and what impacts they have on others the entire journey that the item or service has.